5 Best DIY Home Security Systems Of 2018

Protecting your house is absolutely easy as well as affordable now with DIY home security systems. The wireless security systems may be installed in your house within just half an hour and provide you total security.

DIY home security systems help the residents to have their peace of mind as they give LIVE feeds, smartphone alerts, smart integration, etc. to the residents when they are away from home. But the number of options available in the market today could be quite overwhelming for the buyers. Below is a list of affordable home alarm systems which gives complete control of the property in the hands of the residents without costing them a fortune.

FrontPoint – considered to be one of the best professional monitoring systems for homes

Abode connected house security system – considered to be one of the best free of cost self-monitoring system

SimpliSafe – one of the cheapest professional monitoring systems

Lowe’s Iris – one of the most affordable hardware

Canary – considered to be great for small apartments and properties

The basic difference between a traditional home security system and a DIY home security system is the ability of the system to monitor the property totally. When the system is monitored professionally, the professional company is also in charge for contacting you as well as the authorities in case the system conks off.

The best monitoring systems available in the market

If you a diehard Do It Yourself person but wish to have a security system which comes with complete professional monitoring features, then FrontPoint is a good option for you. It offers as well as requires both. The starter pack of the brand is affordable at just $100 upfront and even the setup of the system is quite easy and thus you can easily do it on your own.

The system’s control panel is pre-configured and thus you just need to peel off a couple of adhesive stickers and then simply place the equipment in the house. Professional monitoring would start at $35 a month but would come with the advantage of “Crash and Smash” protection element of FrontPoint which helps in alerting the security operator just in case the security system goes offline.

The only disadvantage of this system is that it needs a huge commitment. In case within 3 years, the situation of your house or a change in the security priorities of your house happens, it would cost you 80% of the remaining contract to cancel it.

With free of cost self-monitoring system, one of the best application experiences available in the market i.e. Amazon Alexa and Z Wave integration and sleek design- the Abode $320 DIY home security system is the best. At approximately triple the price of FrontPoint, it is considered to be the Bentley of the DIY home security systems.

The dash board of the Abode’s security system, which offers easy to read hub which is accessible on the internet connected devices is quite good. The self-monitoring plans are available from $10 a month which may fetch you 3 days’ security history. Another plan includes $30 a month and the benefit of monitoring the property professionally and 90 days media time grid.

SimpleSafe helps you to add the professional monitoring feature for a small amount of $15 a month but this is not the requirement. You may upgrade anytime you want to just in case if you feel that self-monitoring is becoming way too taxing or if you are not fully satisfied with it.

You may even try the plan for 60 days and also get a complete refund if you are not satisfied with the results of the monitoring system. It offers 5 packages which start from $230 but it does not come with any kind of home automation system.

Lowe’s Iris comes with a standout feature i.e. affordable add on equipment. You need to pay a little more upfront as compared to FrontPoint for getting the set up. But, Iris’s additional sensors usually run between $8- $15 which is 30% to 50% cheaper as compared to sensors from its rivals. Iris is known to have the largest choice of 3rd party home automation equipment.

But there is also a downside of this system and i.e. that Lowe does not offer any warranty for the system and thus just in case if you encounter any kind of defect with the device after the 90 days return period, then Lowe would not help you in anyway.

Designed specifically for the small apartments and homes, Canary helps in keeping it very simple. It comes with just 1 simple feature and i.e. packed tower which hosts good quality camera, air-quality sensor and siren. You would not find any kind of entry sensors with this system and thus for the homes which have multiple access points, you may consider some other device.

However, the system does have an ability of syncing with multiple cameras for forming web of security around a bigger house. Canary does not provide any kind of professional monitoring or cellular backup.

How do we list the best DIY home security systems?

Generally we prefer 2 basic features of the DIY home alarm systems–

professional monitoring feature

custom add on feature

As the needs of house security are different for every user, the best system needs to accommodate customisation and also provide a professional backup.

A prominent draw of the DIY Home security system is that you need to build it on your own. The freedom of adding a 3rd party device helps you to buy best in every category significantly attractive to the users who are clear about what they are looking for.

In case you have a system which is compatible with Z Wave, then you will have the best choices of home automation equipment as well as flexibility of placing them across the house as Z Wave is capable of communicating from farther distances too.